1More Aero True Wireless ANC earbuds review: Bass on a budget

Why does shopping for a decent set of earbuds often feel like such an arduous task? There are enough options out there to compile dozens of contenders across a price range spanning hundreds of dollars, hailing choices from unknown brands and audio giants alike.

Anyone in the market for a new true wireless set of headphones should keep the 1More Aero True Wireless ANC earbuds in their consideration. These headphones claim to deliver uncompromising spatial audio and stellar noise cancellation. But is that even possible in this $100-ish price range?

Price and availability

For shoppers based in the US, Amazon and 1More’s site are the best places to buy the 1More Aero headphones. Normally listed for $110, the Aeros are on sale for $85 on Amazon, at the time of this writing. You can also snag these buds through the 1More USA store, where they’re discounted to $54 from $110.

Design and fit

Their profile may be far from conspicuous, but these buds stay cemented in the ears

The Aero earbuds are a black plastic shell with red accents in the tip and an LED indicator light at the end of the stem, next to the talk mic. They come with a black plastic flip-up carrying and wireless charging case, which features a USB-C charging port on the front edge and a function button on the back. These buds ship with a USB-C charging cable, four pairs of ear tips in sizes small through extra-large, and the user manual.

Strictly from a visual standpoint, the Aeros are kind of the ugly duckling in 1More’s true wireless headphones family. They aren’t exactly low-profile earbuds, and while the fit may vary for different wearers, the Aeros felt a tad blocky and conspicuous for me.

However, that being said, there is some sort of magic in the way these headphones stay secure in the ears. They ship with the medium-sized silicone tips installed, so I kept those on for testing, and it was remarkable how they pulled a Cinderella’s slipper on my ears and my co-tester’s. I ran, I lifted weights, I yoga-ed… and the Aeros never budged an iota.

This iron-clad fit doesn’t mean sacrificing comfort. I kept the Aeros on for hours at a time as I moved from working out to gaming to general use and even sleeping throughout the day. The Aeros never made my ears feel strained or uncomfortable, as other earbuds have done.

Features and app

It’s all intuitive and easy to use

I wasn’t expecting to like the 1More Music app as much as I did. It’s not that their app does things that no other headphone support app does — but the UI is clean and easy to use, and everything is smooth and free of bugginess. You can also see quick information like the case and buds’ battery level and quickly toggle on and off select functions like ANC and spatial audio.

Other notable features of these headphones include in-ear detection and touch control. The Aeros also support Bluetooth multipoint through the app, meaning the headphones can hold an active simultaneous Bluetooth connection with two devices and switch seamlessly between each one. This isn’t a feature we consistently see across Bluetooth earsets, especially in the Aeros’ price window.

The app grants a fair amount of user control. Switch between three noise-canceling modes (active, transparent, and off). Diving deeper into the settings, you can change the tap controls, select preset equalizer profile, and turn on a feature 1More calls Smart Loudness. This supposedly preserves bass and treble at low volumes, but I didn’t notice much of an improvement with it on (no improvement was necessary, anyway).

The app grants a fair amount of user control. Switch between three noise-canceling modes (active, transparent, and off). Diving deeper into the settings, you can change the tap controls, select preset equalizer profile, and turn on a feature 1More calls Smart Loudness. This supposedly preserves bass and treble at low volumes, but I didn’t notice much of an improvement with it on (no improvement was necessary, anyway).

Interestingly, this brand has a second app that I spotted in the App Store and downloaded out of curiosity, called 1More Assistant. This app acts as a sort of IEM deep equalizer with burn-in support. I’m not sure if 1More Assistant is meant for the company’s higher-end headphones, but the Aeros connected and communicated with the app just fine, so that was an unexpected perk.

Performance and audio quality

Spatial audio of headphones three times the price

These are budget-friendly headphones with the performance of a brand-name set that costs double. Even right out of the box with the preconfigured studio audio profile, the Aeros beautifully mesh a deep bass with sharp voice tones and stellar retention of fine details. These buds held on to even the quiet instruments and softer vocals that other headphones tend to lose track of at higher and lower volumes.

Some equalizer tweaking may be necessary to really throw open the curtains on the Aeros’ soundstage, but even in its default studio mode, these buds receive more than a passing grade in this subject. Plus, the imaging is always impressively accurate, particularly where a perceived distance of a sound — such as footsteps walking away or someone whispering near your ear — is important, like in movies and gaming.

The Aeros’ spatial audio keeps pace with earsets from household audio names like Sony and Samsung. From music to gaming to movies, these headphones consistently delivered a virtual surround sound experience that should make brands costing twice as much (or more) sweat.

ANC is effective, if not as powerful as what’s in premium models.

While not the absolute best headphones for active noise cancelation, you’d be very hard-pressed to find a better pair around $100. 1More says they use “proprietary QuietMax noise canceling technology.” Whatever that is, it’s profoundly effective, if not as powerful as what’s in premium models.

There are four ANC modes on the Aeros – strong, mild, adaptive, and a special one for wind noise — and it was difficult to discern a difference between any of the four, even between the strong and mild. Even so, the noise cancelation on these buds is great for those who want to dampen the sounds of cartoons, dogs barking, other people in a cafe, or public transit noise without silencing it altogether.

Call quality on the Aeros was unexpectedly superb. The person on the other end remarked that there was minimal background noise, sharp voice delivery, and none of the faraway hollowness that often plagues phone calls made with earbuds. 1More says its six built-in mics on the Aero are powered with an AI machine-learning algorithm to support high-clarity calls, and they certainly seem to have delivered on that claim.

Battery and charging

Meets expectations

The Aeros come with a 450mAh charging case that wirelessly charges the headphones. Each earbud contains a 40mAh battery. They charge blisteringly fast — 1More says to expect about an hour for the headphones to reach a full charge when put in the case, but mine reached a full charge from dead in about 35 minutes. The case, on the other hand, charged up to full in about 110 minutes, which is on par with 1More’s claim of two hours.

With noise cancellation turned off, the Aeros should clock in at 7 hours of playback plus an additional 21 hours stored in the case. This is on the nose — I used the headphones for about 7 hours per day, and had to plug the case in for a charge at the end of day four. In a second round of testing with ANC turned on, the total playback time with the case and headphone battery was almost 26 hours.

The competition

There are tons of earbuds at this price point, but the Aeros stand out

Where you’re looking for stemmed earpieces like the Aeros or actual earbuds, you won’t anguish over a shortage of options. Against other brands, the Aeros’ biggest weaknesses are its uncompetitive battery life and an unvarying performance in its different noise cancellation modes. However, a number of strengths include an ultra-comfortable fit, impeccable spatial audio, and a polished sound for a variety of uses.

An affordable wireless headset that closely competes with the Aeros would be the Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 NC, a $100 set of earbuds that impressed us with its stellar all-purpose sound and spatial audio. The Liberty 4 NCs are more affordable than the Aeros by a slim margin, offer a longer battery life both in the buds and case, and perform better in adaptive ANC. However, the call quality is worse, and the sound profile needs major tweaking.

The Sony WF-C500s also swing in this weight class. Another option that shaves a few bucks off the Aero’s price tag, and offers the compact, stemless earbud profile that some shoppers may prefer. The battery life is a bit longer than the Aeros, and these buds lean on tried-and-true Sony sound technology.

Should you buy them?

These are excellent general-purpose headphones for anyone

Generally speaking, the Aeros are well-suited for just about any user, including casual gamers, working professionals, and beginner audiophiles. Shoppers may understandably lean towards options that clear the under-$100 threshold in their MSRP, like the Liberty 4 NCs and the WF-C500s.

However, I think premium-level spatial audio and a ridiculously comfortable fit are worth the extra $10 or so to jump up to the Aeros (which are actually on sale at the time of this review’s publishing). They’re versatile enough to suit even picky listeners browsing from varying niches, like gaming or athletics, and make minimal audio sacrifice to stay in the budget-buds territory.